pleurae art blog

Try an apron. Put it on any time you're going to clean to build an association. Not only will it keep your clothes clean from splatter, I find the feeling of the apron is just enough of a stimulating pressure to make me feel like I'm 'in the zone'.

Different types of gloves. Medical gloves for mild tasks (albeit if you're working a lot, you will sweat, so you'll need to swap them out and let your hands dry sometime. It does provide a barrier to more squicky things though, which can encourage further cleaning.)

Dish gloves for dishes, more of that ick factor is gone, I feel safe plunging my hands into water and engaging dishes that have shmutz on them still. I'm able to completely take care of hand-washing my dishes without getting emotionally drained by ick contact.

Dusting mit for dusting! Or a dusting rod, more sensory protection and it's much easier to swipe up dust in hard to reach places. I dusted my entire apartment in no time.

Bins to organize with instead of trying to neatly stack things. What matters is that you can find things, and that they're enclosed in a boundary of some sort. Matching lids to containers isn't happening for me, and it so much easier to have a bin to slide out and look through with approximate bowls and lids than to sit and one by one match and stack.

Clean and Dirty laundry baskets. How many times have you successfully folded in the last month? Laundry in itself is a lot of work for me to do, and I'd much rather have my clean clothes in a nice laundry basket to pull stuff from and then a basket for dirty clothes, so things don't get mixed up but are still manageable.

A special tray out and visible, the moment you get home your keys, wallet, and phone go there. You'll have to train for it but I found it instantaneously better.

An expense worth saving for is a Roomba, to cut down on sweeping and help you manage your space. You can't get around the occasional sweep and mop combo but this is about sustainability.

EXTERNAL STIMULANTS: MUSIC, PODCAST, DOCUMENTARY. Some sort of thing to listen to that isn't going to overly-engage you but is enough to provide an audio engagement. For me I like up-beat music, I get moving and I don't want to stop. It's hard to start up the engine but once you get zooming around your brain starts to feel good.

Visibility and cutting down on steps is key. No 'I should've/should', who's space are you organizing? Steve down the lane, or you? Things need to be accessible and controlled for your own needs, and at some point this shit is just aesthetic performance.

Embrace "good enough." This is habitat management, you are a creature alright. You don't get mad at your pets for having unique needs or sometimes making messes when they're upset due to past fear or current changes. You are a whole-ass animal with unique needs, personalities and interests, and the only thing you need to do is make your space accessible and comfortable to -you-.

Use your executive dysfunction to your benefit and save what you hate for last. For me its the kitchen, and I can do any type of cleaning to put off cleaning the kitchen. You will dodge and weave around that shit like the plague until that's all that's left.

Don't shy away from your wandering and forget making steps, also embrace "might as well!" You're standing in front of the fridge with a papertowel and a spray, but you were just wiping the counters and aren't done yet? Well, might as well clean this fridge while we're here, chances are you'll walk by the counters again anyways.

No list-making, no breaking things down, the more steps you think about the more intimidating and exhausting it is, so drift around your house naturally like a ghost and just 'might as well' wherever you're standing. You'll get back to where you were, I promise.

Buddy Systems and Self-Rewarding. Put the phone down and treat it like a reward, when you get to needing a break, take a picture of your progress and text a friend you trust who you know will be on board. Having a companion say 'good job!! That's so much work keep going' is actually a life saver, we need external dopamine inputs and validation to keep the engine going. But -only- use your phone for that. Your electronics or hobby that you'd usually do without thinking is now a treat for a good job, and so is your friend saying how proud they are of you! It's not a punishment to put it down, its game-ifying, use that language. "I'm going to reward myself by showing my friend my progress. I'm going to reward myself once I finish this with a piece of candy."

No Shaming yourself. No 'why cant I just...' 'i should've', 'i need to make it look like', none of that. You aren't living someone else's life in someone else's body you are living your own life. Who cares what John Doe does, how they organize, forego societal expectation. Configure your space for You.

What would make things easier for you? Do that. Bins, Gloves, Aprons, visible places for important things. Build the environment that cuts down on steps and reduces things to straight-forward actions.

Once you finish your ADHD environmental reset, your brain will feel so much better. Good luck comrades, and remember to take short breaks in preferably a clean room, come back to that space to sit and drink water and eat a snack, and use your break to self-reward with your buddy support system.